Mechbox Review - Lonex drop-in mechbox
 

So we brought a few of these gearboxes into the country for testing and to see whether or not these would be suitable for sale in Canada. We actually sold one before we even tested them.

Anyway, here's our review of the Lonex drop-in gearbox.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020914.jpg

The version we ordered was the M120SP Original Type for SR16. So it's basically an M120 rear-wired V2 box.
Each box is INDIVIDUALLY serial-numbered.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020915.jpg

Comes in a non-descript brown box, carefully wrapped. Without cracking it open, we're going to pair it with a Lonex A1 high torque/high speed motor and install it into this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020917.jpg


A few first impressions:
* Gearbox shell is chromium-plated and not painted. This means that over time, the coating will not rub off and potentially foul your mechbox. Coating is also quite slippery - means you shouldn't have to do weird things like putting bearings on your tappet plate LOL.
* Feels quite dense
* Reinforced front-end on both the top and bottom of the cylinder window
* 8mm open-faced bearings
* There are no provisions for the fake bolt catch/release in the mechbox.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020919.jpg

* Various "windows" for checking the health/shimming of your mechbox
* Cutout for the anti-reversal latch so you can release the tension in your mechbox before you open it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020920.jpg

Installation into a G&P metal body was very painless. All the holes matched up perfectly and we were able to get the box into the lower receiver and the motor hooked up in less than 3 minutes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020922.jpg
We were pleased to notice that the motor leads were actually the correct length. The drop-in box uses the same quality connectors that Lonex sells separately.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020920.jpg
Chrony results yielded the following:
Average 440fps at a blistering 30rps on a 11.1v 15C lipo.
Variance between shots was also quite low - +/-2fps.
The Lonex A1 motor just laughed at the 450fps spring - this motor should be able to support an M170 spring on 18:1 gears.

Here's a couple of brief videos showing shenanigans (not sure why there's audio lag).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/th_00017.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/th_00016.jpg


On a 11.1v 25C lipo the mechbox was double-shooting on semi due to the immense speed and torque of the motor, thus the 15C lipo. We would recommend a 7.4V lipo and/or a less baller motor but didn't have any handy. (we actually don't own any. LOL!!!)

Now, the teardown:
Gearbox has the standard gearbox screws with locking washers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020926.jpg

The gearbox opened without incident.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020927.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020929.jpg
The parts list is as follows:
* Lonex Standard blue piston (2nd tooth factory removed, 10 steel teeth)
* Lonex Standard ratio 18:1 reinforced steel gears *Update - Sector delay clips pre-installed*
* Lonex 8mm open-faced bearings
* Lonex heat-treated polished cylinder
* Lonex POM piston head *Update - New boxes shipping with Aluminum heads*
* Lonex low-resistance wiring throughout
* Lonex M120SP spring
* and the usual Lonex small bits

What we liked:
* Probably the first thing we noticed is that we didn't have to chase down the anti-reversal latch and/or trigger. The parts inside the mechbox fit exceptionally well - better than any other OEM gearbox we've opened. The anti-reversal latch sat nice and deep inside its socket in the shell and the trigger didn't budge, even when bumped against or the mechbox shook while assembling the spring

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020932.jpg
* Shim job is quite good for a factory job. Having said that, they could've used one or two less shims, but nonetheless the gears were free-spinning. Also, during test-firing, the mechbox sounded very quiet with no whine (see next point)

* Gears meshed very well. Unbeknownst to most, how the gears mesh against each other will affect how the gearbox sounds. If the teeth between gears mesh perfectly, then you'll hear less gear slop and whine. In this gearbox, whine was minimal and slop was almost nonexistent when turning the gearbox by hand. Also, we didn't have to chase the gears around with a small tool when closing the mechbox - this means the gearshafts mated very well to the bearings.

* Low resistance wiring used throughout.

* Well-greased gearbox. Not too much, not too little. Grease is very similar in consistency and texture to Superlube.

* The gearbox opens and closes with ease due to its exacting tolerances. We didn't have to fight with aligning the gears or the ARL and trigger.

* Lonex's high quality POM piston head instead of their aluminum head and nozzle used. *Update - New boxes shipping with Aluminum heads*
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020931.jpg

What we didn't like:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/P1020930.jpg
* Lonex's blue piston used instead of the red extreme toughness piston - still though, the blue is better than 80% of the pistons out there.

* No sector gear clip - would've been nice for them to include one given the high rate of fire
***UPDATE*** Now includes metal sector gear clip

* Angle of engagement is only half-corrected via the shaved piston tooth, but the cylinder head would've benefited with a thicker piece of rubber - a 3/16" sorbothane pad would do nicely here. The Lonex rubber piece was removed with minimal effort

* Tamiya connector with a small lead in the back - would've been nice to at least have Deans and/or lengthend the wire lead. Oh well, the box DID say for SR16. This would've worked perfectly for that application.


Conclusion:
Simply put, we were floored by the out-of-the-box performance of the mechbox. Having said that though, it does have some minor annoyances which can and definitely should be addressed before installing into a body. Thankfully, due to the ease of open and closing the mechbox, these corrective tasks can be performed quite easily.

Lonex does offer some other flavours of mechboxes, we'll try to get our hands on these as well as the M100 high-speed gearboxes on our next restock.

Where do I buy one?
HERE:
http://www.airsoftstore.ca/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=35_4



UPDATE: 2013-12-01 - Amendments/updates to the Lonex box via YouTube video review:
http://youtu.be/tpJet7bhBjc

Nice review on the best gearbox on the market!

Nice review
Shell looks of great quality, among other things

And what's the price like?

I bought a Lonex drop-in from Stealth (airsoftstore.ca) for 170$ + shipping

I agree with the AOE correction
I finally got it to fit my proprietary Javelin's

Pros:
Nice wiring assembly, nice, open bearings, well made gears, reinforced mechbox, nicely shimmed (everybody should check bevel gear shimming even with drop-in mechbox to fit their setup), nice piston. I get nice ROF with 9.6v small nimh. Very silent mechbox paired with Guarder ultimate torque-up motor.

Cons: (edit : maybe a wrong personal feeling)
I found the air seal of the piston head very horrible, no compression at all (in my complete drop-in mechbox). Even if I did the o-ring enlargement mod (remove it, put it on the cylinder, heat it with lighter, let it cool down), nothing helped. Once I put a silent piston head, air seal was perfect. I found out the external diameter of the piston head is 12.35mm (if I remember correctly) and 12.55mm ish for the no-name silent.

It's built to last!

I didn't know for the 440fps lol, I'll downgrade it :P thanks

http://www.airsoftstore.ca/index.php...products_id=75

If you're testing the compression by moving the piston slowly in and out of the cylinder, it'll give the illusion of having bad compression.

Most people test their compression by how well it seals when the piston is slow-moving, but really the piston o-ring expands quite a bit when under pressure. What Lonex has done here has used an o-ring that APPEARS to be poor-sealing but actually seals quite well at mechbox operating speed. To test this you need to force the piston into the cylinder very quickly. The plus side of using this size o-ring is that there is very little excess resistance that would otherwise slow down ROF and decrease FPS.

We swapped out the o-ring with an SHS one and while the static compression improved drastically, we actually got LOWER FPS and ROF than before - presumably due to excess o-ring resistance.

The 440fps number was obtained with the Lonex piston o-ring.

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll try it today

Very nice review Stealth. I'm looking into getting one of these for my MP5.

Lonex just sent this video over to us to demonstrate their box.
Freshly removed from a -17C icebox then subjected to 2minutes of continuous fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=PLWt5Pqo8IA#!

So Lonex took our feedback and fed it back to their assembly - the gearboxes now come WITH metal sector gear clips.

Cant wait for my high speed mechbox to arrive. Thanks stealth, you and your guys rock !

What I'd like to know is how long that's been in the freezer for. Could've been one day or one minute. If it's been in for only an hour and the ROF is that low then its not very impressive.

Good point. Another thing is that it does not say what spring is in there.
But then again, it seems like an independent test (as in, not sanctioned by Lonex - just going by the fact that the subject is a Caucasian male).

I don't think an hour or a day would be different in a -17C ice box, there is not that much thermal mass.

prod them for a specific g36 mechbox :P and while you're at it.... a v6 as well.

Stealth, any update on long term use? How are the boxes holding up to regular game use? Stock, out of box, game use? With minor upgrades to correct your "what we didn't like"?

Has anyone tried fitment in a Madbull receiver? I have a torus box that is snug in the MB. Shimmed well and good parts inside but got a sadly impressive burst of triple feeding at OP Deadfall. Theory is that the fitment with the top cover is just slightly off and torqued the mechbox causing something to bind.

I can add some info to this thread, not on long term but from my experience with the gearbox.

For my part the gearbox was a little hard to fit in my G&P body. The fake bolt/bolt cover fit super snug which make the charging handle hard to operate.

The construction of the gearbox is amazingly though. I have a M90 & 6.03 thighbore in my M4 and the FPS is a constant 375.

Really happy with it. So far it has been strong & reliable. Definitely worth it.

I've worked on a gun with the Lonex GB in a Madbull body. It fitted pretty nicely without any additional work. It's pretty much a TM spec GB and doesn't have too much reinforcement that bulges out like the Torus one. I'm waiting on that customer to give me some feed back after a few games. But over all, it's a nice complete GB compared to others on the market. I would take this over many others complete GB, maybe even the Modify ones. But I need to see long term wear and over all reliability.

was wondering if purchasing this gearbox, i just change the spring to a m90 it should work fine right? i want more of a CQB type FPS for indoor games. obviously the weaker spring should be less stressful on the piston and gears.

I've been using both the complete and the Lonex shell for the entirety of this past season and haven't had any issues. We've also been hearing positive things from the other clients who have purchased the box. I think the Modify one is a bit beefier while the Lonex one is a bit more slim and "TM-spec" as HKGhost has said so it does make for installation a bit easier into a variety of bodies. I know the Modify shell doesn't work on my Systema (old school) metal body without a lot of "coaxing".

We did get a report of the trigger post snapping on one of the mechboxes but that seemed to be an isolated incident. We're currently following up with Lonex on that to ensure that we don't get any of that batch and to also make sure that they pay special attention to that area.

I know the box can take an M170 spring on a DSG setup without issue (of course, you'd have to swiss-cheese the piston, and a bunch of other things). John has it setup with an M150 single stroke setup, and I have had a variety of springs in it from M100s up to M140s. So the Lonex box will laugh at an M90 spring.

I'll be doing another DSG setup on it soon with RiotSC gears, but if you're looking for something that's a good base from which to build up from, this box is up there.

nice to hear. has the complete box you've been using all stock Lonex or have you upgraded your don't like items?

My Lonex drop in gearbox is having issues with the trigger and contacts getting stuck, to the point it doesn't fired any more. I opened it up, and replaced all the electrical system with VFC parts. While it worked perfectly for a while, the problem returned, rendering my gun non-functional again... :(

Any idea what the heck is going on?
I suspect the proprietary tappet plate might have something to do with it :S

The metal is sticking? Running an 11v? Try a mosfet

Are your trigger contact prongs too tight?

really? boo!

Whaaa? LOL what's a proprietary tappet plate?
It's just like the Modify one where it's cut out in the parts where the mechbox is reinforced.

What does the tappet plate have to do with a sticky trigger?...
The tappet plate's job is to translate the rotational position of the sector gear into moving the nozzle forwards and backwards.

Got the Lonex contacts out, and they are a little bit tight, but not that much :|
I'm not sure, in any case Im gonna have to crack it open anyway, and I'll try to oppen the prongs with pliers...
I've been running a 7.4 v for about 3 or 4 games, so it isnt that. The contacts looked shiny as a mirror.

The weird thing is that its happening with both, the Lonex, and VFC contacts, which leads me to think it might be something else.

Edit: It might also be that the returning spring is going out of place, any recommendations to fix that ? Super-Glue maybe?

I dunno. He posted it.

glad it's like the modify one. thanks for the clarification though.

I have an idea of what's going on:
On the Lonex one, the prongs may be too tight.

On the VFC one, if the height of the electrical trigger block is too tight, when you close the mechbox, the top of the mechbox will press the prongs closer together, causing the prongs to come close together, causing binding.

I would just recommend opening up the Lonex one a bit and checking for electrical continuity when the trigger is open and closed. You don't need to prongs to grip the sled anyway, just enough to make an electrical circuit.

Upgraded the don't like items and a few other small bits.
Really just the rear connector, sorbo pad, sector clip and swiss-cheesed the piston to prevent pre-engagement.

I've been using the complete Lonex Sp100 for about 4 months and it's still running as smoothly as NIB!
I'm using 7.4v while shooting 405fps and great ROF

Just found out that this part of the gearbox shell (red circled) broke inside... :(
That might been the cause of all my problems. Now its running, but semi-auto doesn't work any more.

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/9...tchgearbox.jpg

That is a common problem. It stops the trigger from slipping of the block. With it gone, the block tips and slips off the trigger and the gun does not fire.

Get a new gearbox shell or you have to improvise. I have stopped doing that. The proper solution is to get a new gearbox. You could also switch to a mosfet trigger replacement like the ascu, etc. They don't require that part of the casting to operate.

This is not the first time I've heard of this. I just sent out an email to all my customers who bought one of these boxes in the past months. I've been able to track down all affected boxes to being part of the July shipment.

I have also alerted Lonex of this issue and they are looking into the problem. In the meantime, I will continue to monitor the situation and report back in this thread. My personal boxes, as well as two from the July shipment that I installed for friends, are holding up so far.

Rodrigo - I just sent you an email about this. Lets chat offline and keep this thread for updates on the situation.

Any thoughts on the version 3 counterpart of this mechbox? I'm thinking of throwing one of these in an JG AK but I'm a little skittish on compatibility. In particular, I'm curious what AK hopup units the Lonex AK nozzle likes best...

I have a lonex AK nozzle on my Beta project cyma mechbox and it feeds with my King Arms plastic hopup extremely well (I took out the metal Cyma stock hopup unit). You saw it at the last game worked amazing until the battery died.

Awesome, thanks for the datapoint.

Well I couldn't help myself and I pulled the trigger on the V3 version of this box. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Hoo boy. I was pretty sure nothing gets me excited anymore in gearboxes but I was wrong. This thing is immaculate.

Remember the part where Stealth said everything in the gearbox stays in place when you open it and you all said "yeah right what a bunch of hyperbole bullshit"? Well, you were wrong. I have just witnessed a V3 -- yep ... V3 -- trigger stay in place the entire time I worked on a gearbox, through many openings and closings, insertions of springs and such over a couple hours of shimming and tinkering. Awesome.

You should all be tripping over yourselves to get your hands on these gearboxes, they're very very nice...

Here's some quick pix of the gearbox. Note how the ARL, trigger, and bevel are perfectly in place and not flying off somewhere.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/air...%2057%20PM.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/air...%2028%20PM.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/air...%2039%20PM.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/air...%2051%20PM.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/air...%2048%20PM.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/air...%2039%20PM.jpg

Rad.

The piston assembly is quite heavy so if you're using that motor, make sure you are aware of the dangers of pre-engagement. I know the kinds of batteries you use...

wicked. I'll be getting one of those soon enough.

The finish on that gearbox makes my cyma gb look like the moon.

I have no idea what you're talking about

http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/images/CR1620.jpg

Side note, I really prefer the AoE offset position that I generally get after sorbo'ing V3 gearboxes as opposed to V2. I find that I never have to remove as much or sometimes any of the 3rd tooth in a V3 setup, where as on V2 it's pretty common. This gearbox is no exception.

Also, I know it's a bit cheesy, but I'm already liking the acoustics of this gearbox before even putting it into the receiver. High expectations...

EDIT: Kidding aside i'm testing with this:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...alog/19122.jpg

I totally wish they had a true g36 flavor of this thing.. I'd be all over it.

I tried my G36 motor cage on it and couldn't get it to fit at all, but I'm not certain why that would prevent you from throwing on a G36 firing selector and nozzle.

The AK motor cage in my pictures had to be, well, let's just say I had to really really push. I gave up and then drank some wine and came back 30 minutes later and gave it another go and it went on. It suffices to say that it is an extremely solid and stable fit now :)

G36 nozzles and selector plates are widely available. So what gives?

Nice to see it comes with what appears to be a different colour extreme toughness piston and the sector clip already installed. Any idea what the gear ratio's are on this version mechbox?

On a side note, I just switched my SHS motor to Lonex orange (short) and there is a significant improvement in rate of fire and trigger response performance, more than I expected. The SHS is still great but the Lonex is an improvement.

I think Maciek has the SP120 standard one with 18:1 gears. We can get them in 3 flavours: SP120 with 18:1 gears, SP100 with 16:1 gears and SP150 with helical torque-up gears (not sure what the ratio is on these, probably 32:1?). We're putting a restock through over this weekend, so hit me up if you want something other than the standard one.

Maciek swooned over the SHS short, so if the Lonex orange is THAT much better then he may just jizz his pants. The thing with SHS though is that because of their low price, they have to make and sell a ton to make money on volume. The thing with high-volume is that you often take the eye off the ball on quality and SHS QC is TEH PITS.

Finding an extra g36 safety is a bit of an issue, though since it's external, it's not a huge deal to swap it over.

The locking tab on the top that allows the gearbox to be screwed into the upper is a hard part to track down, and defeats the purpose of a hotswap gearbox if I have to take apart an existing gearbox to get the part.

There's an extra lobe on the cutoff level that needs to be filed off to make it worth with g36 selector plates.

The trigger is an ak style trigger.. not a huge deal but for the purists who want a g36 trigger, they'd have to source one.

And as you mentioned, motor cage fit. I'm not sure if the AK motorcage will work in a g36 lower if you said it didn't fit. I tried to source a cage, it's a blue aluminum one, and it's too long where the height adjustment is, it hits the grip plate and the gearbox won't sit into the lower properly.

So no, there's nothing stopping me from scavenging the part sI need or replacing the different ones that are available, but my purpose for buying one would be for setting up separate outdoor/indoor configurations.

Would you like some cheese with that whine? LOL! j/k

Honestly though I've been asking Lonex to make more G36-friendly parts, just for you buddy.
The only problem is that the G36 doesn't see much popularity outside of Europe and North America.

lol. I'm not terribly concerned about it. It's wishful thinking and somewhat greedy of me. I can make due if I really want to have 2 gearboxes. Thanks though. :P

Received my lonex m100 ver2 gearbox today and just wanted to share my experience with it. All I can really say is wow. This is a really nice gearbox for the money damn. Opened it up and everything sits nice and tight, its absolutely great nothing pops out. The only things I did to the gearbox was a type 0 cylinder instead of a type 1 and used the g&p nozzle so it would mate with the g&p hop up correctly. Other than that there were ZERO issues going into a g&p m16a3. The compression is also great, gun is shooting 415 right now but that will probably tone down a bit after some use. I am for sure going to have to get the lonex ver 2 gearbox for the g3, hint hint;)

Just got my new Lonex shell, the trigger post is about 3 times as large as the old one (the broken post is sitting at it's right side). I also noticed that the white tappet plate that it came with seems beefier than the old blue one :)
Thanks again Stealth.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/830...1104130713.jpg

Does anyone have any experience installing one of these (v2) into a King Arms receiver?

I don't anticipate any issues with this setup. The Lonex box isn't oversized like the Modify boxes and is quite TM spec.

Product advisory -

It has come to our attention that the Lonex complete mechboxes that are currently on the market MUST have their Angle of Engagement of the piston corrected. If left unchecked, the piston will fail prematurely. The issue is most apparent on the M120 boxes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...128_091005.jpg

We just did some stress testing last night and discovered that after a 5-minute sorbo install, the issue is fully resolved.

Here's the video of our stress test (this video MAY have been done after a few drinks)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...201-WA0000.jpg

And here are the pics of the piston AFTER this test. There is ZERO wear. (I KNOW RIGHT?!!! LOL WTF BBQ!!!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...205_211046.jpg

As a result, we are now offering once again the option of having us open up the box and having the sorbo+neopad installed before the box is shipped out.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...205_202840.jpg

Please also note that the weak trigger post has now been addressed by Lonex on their V2 mechboxes.

Current status

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...26957341_n.jpg

A lot of motor cages do not like this mechbox, so I suspect the best way to go is to get the Lonex motor cage (along with perhaps a Lonex motor too :) ). The CNC'd SHS one is okay, but only after a lot of filing and sanding and adjustment. I also had to shorten the shaft on the CYMA motor I'm temporarily using.

We'll bring a few motor cages in.

What do you recommend for sorbo pads in guns that are running 20+rps?

70oo Sorbo with the Neopad. Since we started cutting our own pads, we've just packaged the 2 together - Sorbo Buddies. ... yeah...

John, myself, Maciek, lurkingknight and a bunch of guys run this setup without issues.

How many glasses of wine did you drink?

you should probably determine what thickness you need before ordering... It's best to measure the amount you need to push the piston back to achieve your desired AoE. if you're closer to 400 fps, 70d is the hardness you want, though I don't think there would be anissue running 70d at 300fps either... 50d is pretty soft.

HA.

How's that 7 tooth pinion coming along? ;)

Good. Danny @ Siegetek is making up a few more samples. We'll send them your way for trials when we get them in.

Unfortunately the Lonex ARL in this gearbox is a bit weak, d'oh.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149620/airs...broken_arl.jpg

Note to any readers reading this thread as a drop-in mechbox review. The above ARL failure is unlikely to happen to you unless you're doing "fun" mechbox stuff :)

How fun? "60+ rps sexperiment" fun?

Not gonna lie - I follow this thread daily to see what you say about that AK Lonex mechbox and its weighing hard on wether I make the purchase...

Had to say it!

Surprisingly (or not), I've seen my fair share ARL failures that looked EXACTLY like that.

Actually, not that fun. I haven't gamed this setup yet, this is just during assembly/disassembly and testing that it broke. Stock 18:1 gears, stock spring, nothing fancy. I think it probably broke during pinion/bevel alignment.

If your first guess is significantly off and you are mixing a high torque motor with a 6000mAh LiPo that can happily supply >200A routed through a MOSFET, the occasional accident can happen. Just be careful with these ARLs during initial setup if you're messing around with high powered parts.

edit: Also I'd like to report that this AK build is complete and the Lonex gearbox has worked out great. Due to the sketchy JG body I put it into I had to play around a bit with nozzles and sanding down a couple areas on the receiver, but it's great now. I'll probably use the V2 version of this gearbox if I'm doing any further builds in the future.

Yo. SC. Do you still have one of these? I kinda want to throw one into my VFC.

Yeah we have a few. Emailed you.

Any further confirmation of this? My purchase depends on either KA or Dboys and wether or not the Lonex mechbox fits.

Searches on google find the Lonex mechbox to be finicky in some metal receivers mainly to do with rear body pin alignment.

A list of confirmed receiver fitments would be ideal.

I'll drop the box into my KA body tonight and let you know.

you know what, I'm glad I don't have a ARL in my dmr. Thank you ASCU.

LOL ASCU...

In other news, as promised - Lonex box in a KA body. I don't see any issues, both body pins are in and the mechbox is straight.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...122_234436.jpg

PM sent - lets make some arrangements here :)

So one of these in a V3 for an ak beta with an sp100 would fit in my mp5k and with a lonex orange or red motor would give a prety high rof in a riliable box without having to swiss cheese or short stroke or anything fancy like that?

I've managed to snatch up a Lonex drop in from a user on the forums who bought it from airsoftstore.ca in a fairly recent transaction.

Looking at the selector plate theres a little spring that to my knowledge (based on other gearboxes) has a loop hole at one end to help keep it in place -

Mine has popped out twice now (yes I was fucking around with it) due to the fact that it DOES NOT have a loop on either end of the spring

Are they all like this? or did something break.

I haven't been able to test the box out yet (in the process of adding deans) but when the trigger is pulled - it clicks - whats that all about?

The selector plate and cutoff lever should have little nubs to hold the spring in place. If they are not present, you need a new selector plate and/or cut-off lever.

If your mechbox is clicking, chances are your sector gear is in a position where it's setting off the trigger sled. Nothing to be worried about, it should cycle fine.

Once you put the mech box in a receiver, that spring doesn't tend to pop off.

My lonex gearbox i failing at about 1000 rounds. Fires sparatic full auto in semi:(. Opening it up tonight to check it out

Sounds like your trigger prongs need to be adjusted. Either that or your cutoff lever is done, the former being more likely as the Lonex cutoff lever is pretty touch.

I'm on my 2nd full season on the box, aside from opening it up to install a FET it's doing alright.

Most likely. The issue started out as a dead trigger. Thought it was motor terninals but they were good. Opened it up and thr contacts looked a bit spread so i tightened them up a bit and this happened. I just opened the gearbox and aligned them better. Hopefully it works. I am getting power to the motor i just havent tried it in the receiver yet. I will let ya know.

Ahh that makes sense. Basically you might have tightened the prongs too much meaning that the trigger sled makes electrical contact and your trigger isn't far back enough for the cutoff lever to disconnect it.

If you try a firm quick squeeze all the way to the rear, you'll understand what I mean. Compare that with squeezing the trigger half-way and dawdling it.

Well a full squeeze would give me the full auto in semi and a half squeeze would give me semi. Hopefully i have it figured out. Not at home at the moment.

That seems completely opposite of what I would expect.

What was your order #?

Sneaking suspicion it's the trigger post that snapped. Email me at sales@airsoftstore.ca and I'll get you sorted out.

John

Trigger post is all good. It was one od the first things i checked. I will have to go back and look for my order #

I am thinking about getting one of these for my vfc hk416, would i need the rear wired m4 version, or the rear wired m16a2 version? Also, do these fit in the vfc body without any trouble? I dont want to have to bust out the dremel. And one last thing, I heard these are picky about motor cages, so would this box play nice with the stock vfc motor and cage, or do i need a different set up there?

Thanks!

You should probably get the rear-wired M4 version for the right cylinder volume.

Yes Lonex boxes are a direct clone of VFC shells and are tested to work with VFC bodies with no modification. VFC HK416's don't have motorcages... are you referring to the pistol grip? Mine worked with a MOE grip without issues.

In mine it fits a bit loose, compared to the stock vfc box, but it isnt a problem at all. The only thing, is that these lonex mechbox come with very short wires, not ideal for a collapsible stock/.

how short are we talking here?I want to run a short tamiya to deans adaptor to My numchuck battery in my stock. I only need it to extend out a couple of notches. it's it long enough? also, did you have any issues getting the rear body pin out on your 416? Mine seems to be sick in pretty good

It comes out a 4cm or so. Why not cut off the Tamiya and run it straight to Deans?...

The body pin doesn't come out entirely as there's a retention clip holding it. After removing everything (grip, trigger pin, mag release, stock tube), you can use a tool to push out on the pin whilst wiggling the mechbox free. Alternatively, if you look where the pin is, you should be able to see the retention clip, a small screwdriver should be sufficient to pop the clip loose.

Ok, when I order the box, would i be able to ask you to send me an extension cable i can use to connect my battery to the mechbox? I run numchucks in my crane stock, and 4 cm is defs not enough to go through the buffer tube. (and my soldering skills are quite bad)

My piston stripped after 10 shots :/
Other than that, it's a solid performer with great compression.

That's not an awful lot of mileage for a brand new box. Sorbos installed? Our records indicate that you opted for an M110SP spring installed. Using 11.1v lipo and high-torque motor? Pre-engagement and not really the fault of the box itself. Just a poor combination of supporting parts.

When I ordered it, I requested an M110 and sorbo to be installed. You did, and it shipped next day, on a weekend. Fantastic service. I ran a 9.6 on a crappy China motor for about 20 test shots, and then an 11.1 on a G&P M120 for about 30 test shots, and the piston stripped. This was a couple weeks ago. Last night while installing a Lonex A1 from ASstore, the bevel gear stripped while testing the A1, with near perfect shimming and AOE, sorbo, and M110. Fortunately, I ordered some ZCI gears that from you ASstore, and I'm excited to test it them. I also have a ZCI piston, so I have a gun for the weekend.

As much of a frustration it is to have a gear and piston strip so fast, I'd still recommend most Lonex parts, and ASstore. Great retailer, amazing service and great pricing. I'd contact Lonex if I were you, and tell them to use a full metal rack piston in the GB, because it was only the 3 plastic teeth in the back that got stripped. I'm not really sure about Lonex gears, I've heard lemon stories about there gears before, so I think Lonex should up the QC on the gear sets.

You're overpowering the system without making any piston modifications. Your gear train, battery and motor combo far outpace your spring requirements.

I have no doubt in my mind - and you can prove me wrong - that your ZCI piston/gears will destroy itself in a very short amount of time, along with whatever else you have in that mechbox if you proceed with that combo. Low FPS, and high ROF guns are tricky to build and it's not just about throwing a fast gearset and motor into a low-power gun.

If you want a low FPS, high ROF setup, you may need to short stroke, lighten the piston and use an M120 to prevent pre-engagement.

Gonna go put up a short blurb on the ZCI piston page warning about the piston weight.

the lonex m110 is also a bit on the soft side in comparison to some other m110s on paper. If that's the case, you're getting PE and overspin with a neo magnet motor and 11.1v lipo. I agree with stealth's prediction that you will probably blow up again if you want to continue running 11.1 lipos.

You need proper AoE correction, sorbo is only part of the AoE puzzle tooth removal on the piston is also necessary. You need very careful shimming, and most of all, you need to match piston stroke to the speed the gears and motor will be pulling at. The proper way to get <370fps high rate of fire on neo magnet motors and high discharge lipos would be take a 120 or 130 spring and short stroked sector gear and piston.

Thanks both of you! I'll give the short stroking a go.

I don't know if this makes a difference, but I only use semi auto. I rarely use full.

If you're pre engaging it won't make a difference if you use semi or full.

Without using a MOSFET with AB, you will never have a perfect cycle of the gears. They will never start and stop in the same position.

With your "overpowered" setup, the gears will still rotate and catch the piston before it has had a chance to return to its starting position. This phenomenon is pre-engagement.

Shopping for a new personal build -

Are there any noticible differences in the 'newest' lonex complete gear boxes (with no spring guide cut out) compared to what you've carried previously?

I may have misread but it kind of sounds like a lottery pick when it comes to what you're getting internally (I.e the piston as stated above)

And lastly - has lonex gotten back to you about fixing the tappet plate known issue?